The present invention relates to a film that has dust-proof properties and scratch resistance and at the same time can fully prevent surface reflection, and more particularly to a low reflective antistatic transparent film that can prevent soiling created by deposition of dust, on the surface of various displays of word processors, computers, and televisions, surfaces of polarizing plates used in liquid crystal displays, optical lenses, such as sunglass lenses of transparent plastics, lenses of eyeglasses, finder lenses for cameras, covers for various instruments, and surfaces of window glasses of automobiles and electric rail cars, and in addition possesses excellent scratch resistance and can prevent reflection of outdoor daylight from the surface thereof.
Glass, plastic and other transparent substrates are used in curved mirrors, back mirrors, goggles, and window glasses, particularly displays of electronic equipment, such as personal computers and word processors, and other various commercial displays. Plastic transparent substrates, as compared with glass substrates, are lightweight and less likely to be broken, but on the other hand, they are disadvantageous in that dust is electrostatically deposited on the surface thereof and, in addition, the hardness is so low that the scratch resistance is poor and, hence, scratches created by rubbing, scratching or the like deteriorate the transparency. Further, a problem common to transparent substrates is that viewing of visual information, such as objects, letters, or figures, through transparent substrates, or viewing of images from the reflective layer through the transparent substrate in mirrors causes outdoor daylight to be reflected from the surface of the transparent substrates, making it difficult to view internal visual information.
Conventional methods for preventing the electrostatic deposition of dust and the deterioration in transparency due to scratches in plastic substrates include coating of an antistatic paint on the surface of the plastic substrates and formation of a hardcoat on the surface of the plastic substrates. The hardcoat with a conductive material, such as an antistatic agent, being dispersed in an amount large enough to prevent the deposition of foreign materials, however, has unsatisfactory transparency and is further disadvantageous in that curing of the hardcoat is inhibited making it impossible to provide hardness high enough to meet the scratch resistance requirement. A highly transparent conductive thin film can be formed by vapor deposition of a metal oxide or the like on plastic substrates. The step of vapor deposition, however, suffers from poor productivity and high cost and, in addition, unsatisfactory scratch resistance.
On the other hand, provision of a low refractive layer on a hardcoat is considered as a method for preventing the reflection of light from the surface of the transparent substrate. Although this can prevent the surface reflection to some extent, relying only on the low refractive layer cannot provide the antistatic effect.